The perfect (fake) storm

When the filmmakers on Kevin Costner’s new Coast Guard movie, The Guardian, needed a realistic Arctic storm scene, they had to create a 100-by-80-foot water tank capable of
holding 750,000 gallons. Then they had to find a company that could make waves happen.

Enter Aquatic Development Group Inc.

The Colonie-based maker and designer of waterpark rides and wave pools was hired to create the perfect storm, at least in terms of cinematic realism. Filmmakers wanted waves 6 to 9 feet high, with foam and cresting whitecaps, according to Los Angeles-based writer and film critic Emanuel Levy.

As Levy describes it on his Web site, Aquatic Development designed a system of three 150-horsepower engines, which drove fans to create rolling waves, one after another. When the waves hit the rear end of the water tank and bounced back, they crashed into the next wave and created a perpetually undulating — and particularly ocean-like — motion.

The production designer on the movie, Maher Ahmad, praised Aquatic’s contribution.

“It was a gratifying day when we saw how wonderful the waves are,” Ahmad told Levy. “It looked just like an angry winter’s day in the Bering Sea — and they were strong enough that they actually made some of the stunt guys nauseous.”